Posted on 09/15/2007 2:40:29 PM PDT by UKrepublican
MADELEINE: 'BODY THROWN INTO THE SEA'
Police fear that the body of Madeleine McCann will never be found and only a confession by her parents can convict them of killing her.
The startling revelations came as officers told of their worries that her body was dumped far out to sea in a bag weighted down with stones. Detectives are convinced she is dead and believe her remains are now gone for ever, a vital piece of missing evidence which seriously weakens their case against Kate and Gerry McCann.
For the first time, police chiefs in Portugal are admitting that the allegedly damning DNA evidence they have gathered in the couple’s apartment and hire car may not be enough to bring charges against them. A senior source in the Policia Judiciaria, which has led the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine on May 3, 135 days ago, said only a confession could now bring a conviction.
Investigators believe the body of the youngster, who would now be four years old, was most probably thrown off a British-owned yacht out at sea after being moved from a hiding place. They are now working on the theory that Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39-year-old doctors, received help from accomplices to move the body and cover up the crime, despite intense scrutiny.
The seven friends on holiday with the McCanns at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz are expected to be questioned again by detectives investigating the accomplice theory. All the friends deny any wrongdoing.
The news came amid startling developments yesterday, including the apparent discovery of blood in an apartment next door to that used by the McCanns. Detectives believe the apartment holds the key to where Madeleine’s body could have been stored in the hours after she went missing.
The discovery was revealed after reports claimed that Madeleine died following an overdose of sedatives. Police are working on the theory that the youngster was repeatedly drugged by her parents – an allegation Kate and Gerry McCann vehemently deny.
Detectives have asked British forensic experts to look for evidence the toddler was given pills on the night she disappeared and earlier occasions.
As Kate and Gerry McCann left their £600,000 home in Rothley, Leics, for a meeting with their solicitors in London, a senior Policia Judiciaria officer told of his misgivings about the case. The officer, who declined to be named, revealed that the absence of a body meant detectives only had forensic evidence and information from interrogations to build a case.
The admission comes only two days after the McCanns went on the offensive after being named official suspects, issuing a challenge to detectives: “Find the body and prove we killed her.”
The senior officer in the Policia Judiciaria admitted that the McCanns’ stance could destroy the case because detectives have “nothing concrete”. He admitted officers were still struggling to piece together events on the afternoon and evening of May 3. In particular, detectives have so far been unable to uncover the chain of events from 2pm until 10.41pm when the police were eventually called after Kate McCann said her daughter was missing.
“There are a lot of clues, signs and indications, but without more elements it’s impossible for us to determine what happened in those vital hours,” the officer said. “Even if the blood and traces gathered in the car or the apartment were confirmed to correspond 100 per cent to the little girl’s DNA, that wouldn’t prove anything.
“Those elements could only confirm – and at the moment we don’t even have that – that the little girl was in the apartment, which is plainly obvious, and in the car. In either of the cases, nothing would prove homicide, just that the body of the little girl had been transferred in the vehicle.”
The officer admitted that a number of fundamental questions remained to be answered, confirming the views of the McCanns’ high-powered legal team that the Portuguese authorities are a long way from presenting a strong case.
The officer went on: “We don’t know if Madeleine is dead and, if she is, how it all happened. Was she strangled? Could she have been beaten? They are all questions only the parents could clarify in an eventual confession.”
Kate and Gerry McCann strenuously reject claims of being involved in Madeleine’s death and disposing of her body, and challenged detectives on Wednesday to find their daughter and prove they killed her. A close friend said: “The legitimate question to ask Portuguese police is: Where is the body? Where is the evidence that Madeleine is dead?”
The case against the McCanns detailed in a dossier now before Judge Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias appears to rest mainly on potentially damaging forensic test results. These are said to include Madeleine’s DNA in traces of bodily fluid, as well as a mass of hair, discovered in the McCanns’ hire car which was rented 25 days after she vanished.
Portugal’s attorney general has indicated the investigation still has some way to go and suggested stricter bail conditions could be imposed on the couple. On Tuesday public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses ordered the 10 police files in the case to go before the judge.
In an effort to find a body, it is expected that fresh searches will be ordered in Praia da Luz, focusing on areas where roadworks were taking place when Madeleine disappeared. Officers are also expected to begin searching several sea-front locations, including caves and grottoes.
Police have already investigated a vessel owned by an English sailor in Lagos, 15 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz. A source close to the case said: “One of the most credible possibilities would involve the body having been thrown in a sack of stones from a yacht.”
The yacht which came under police scrutiny was investigated after a computer owned by the only other suspect, expat Robert Murat, 33, was analysed and found to mention the sailor. Other theories suggest Madeleine’s body was disposed of at one of several waste incinerators.
The McCanns have already been advised by their British lawyers that the Portuguese would have difficulty prosecuting them if they do not find their daughter’s body. Portuguese police admit they fear no judge will allow the case to go to court without that key piece of evidence.
I found this comment by a priest interesting:
“The police must focus on finding Maddie. We don’t know whether she is dead. They won’t find anything here”, the English priest said.
He knows this how?
The case against the McCanns detailed in a dossier now before Judge Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias appears to rest mainly on potentially damaging forensic test results. These are said to include Madeleine’s DNA in traces of bodily fluid, as well as a mass of hair, discovered in the McCanns’ hire car which was rented 25 days after she vanished.
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OH MY GOD!!! Is this true???
Wow. I had really felt sorry for this couple and even thought the Portugese police were just going the typical route of blaming the parents, but this seems damning!
If the parents killed Madeleine, why wouldn’t they kill her siblings?
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It was an accidental overdose from sedating them so they could go out while the kids slept.
One thing about a an accidental drug over dose: I heard a doctor say it would take 30 times the sleep dose to kill the child. Hard to believe a couple of MD’s would over do it.
You might find strands of hair but not CLUMPS of hair. Clumps of hair fall off the scalp of a disintegrating corpse.
It was BODILY FLUIDS in the trunk of the car that the cadaver dogs hit on. Decomposing bodies give off two chemicals that live bodies do not, called cadaverine and spermine. This is the evidence the Portuguese have, and on which they will base their probable cause to arrest the McCanns.
That makes sense to me, because the parents obviously weren’t candidates for “Parents of the Year” by leaving 3 very young children alone while they went out to dinner with friends. It makes more sense than any other explanation does.
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Really??? I mean what if a fire broke out!
Sounds like she had to have been alive for part of that time. I couldn’t imagine what a mess a corpse would be after 25 days.
You assume ‘bodily fluid’ means urine or feces. Bodily fluid of a dead body could be just about anything, including the liquid that comes from a decomposing (25 days after the fact) body. Sad and sick as that is to type about a three year old little girl.
“Why did she clean that toy? (phycologists say most parents wouldnt’ - because they want the smell of their child nearby)”
Yes...this is true.
We had people helping us out during a tough time when our daughter died, and I remember being very upset when I realized her sheets had been washed.
I didn’t want anything to be washed.
I kind of have to agree a little. I have always felt the Portugese police have pointed the finger a little too far to them without much evidence. I mean if they rented this 25 days after she died. THey have been insinuating the parents since day one to me. And furthermore, this is telling of the mindset of the Portugese to think you could ask a friend, ‘Hey, I accidentally killed my kid, could you help me hide the body and then help me pretend to look for her?” Much less SEVEN friends? Whatever.
But, IF, and I say IF, there is DNA of the little girl in the car... that is pretty damning.
“I’m having trouble believing this because... Seriously now, how many regular people could find someone to help them get rid of a body? Particularly the body of a child? And on a moment’s notice to boot?”
the same crew they were traveling with and who claimed they were periodically checking on the children - although - come to think of it - the last guy who checked now says he didn’t actually look into Madeline’s room that night.
My four year old got away from me in a Walmart once. I was really glad to hear they actually DO have a Code Adam and that wasn’t some email Snopes urban legend thing. I told an employee in a panic I couldn’t find my daughter and she immediately called Code Adam on the intercom. She was found by an employee hiding in the clothesrack. She was punished by GOD!
Why has the fact that overdosing normally does not involve BLOOD apparently escaped so many commentators?
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Who said “BOOD”? They said BODILY FLUID. All you CSI buffs around here sure are missing that BODILY FLUID doesn’t necessarily mean BLOOD, URINE,SPIT or FECES?
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53235&goto=nextoldest
The following relates to the family friend who maintained he checked on the children, found everything quiet, but didn’t open the door...
“Also the table waiters that were working in the resort’s restaurant – the Tapas, where the group of friends had dinner that night – didn’t notice much movement of checking on the children. One of them guaranteed to Sol that, since the beginning of dinner (which started between 8.30 and 9 p.m.), only two men got up, almost simultaneously.
One of them was Russell O’Brien, one of the doctors of the group, who was absent for most of the dinner and who returned to the table 5 minutes before Kate went to her apartment and noticed Maddie was missing. Russell then explained that his daughter was sick, and even “vomited so it was necessary to change her bed sheets”. One of the employees of the Ocean Club, who was heard by Sol this week, contradicts his version: “If that had happened, he would have to ask the housekeeping service for some clean sheets, which did not happen”.
That’s it for me, I’m done with this.
I agree with you. So many (including the jury) claimed Darlie Router was guilty of killing two of her children and cutting her own neck because she shot silly string on her son’s grave. If anyone found out the reason, it makes sense. It was her son’s birthday a few days after he died. She already had all the party stuff and her mother suggested they go “celebrate”. The grandmother regrets ever suggesting that because it became damning to her. That grandmother was trying to comfort her daughter as well as hold her own grief. That poor family.
I suppose it is possible that she managed to struggle to the bathroom perhaps to vomit
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Or choked on vomit?
As others have said this is very very strange. If the parents actually said this word-for-word that is shilling to me. If they also as others have said left young children alone at home while they went out that is also a very telling bit of information.
The other evening I was watching Nancy Grace and she had a specialist that said that they can tell if the DNA is cadaverous.
We had people helping us out during a tough time when our daughter died, and I remember being very upset when I realized her sheets had been washed.
I didn’t want anything to be washed.
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I still had my mother’s “cancer turbin” as I called it when she died. It smelled like her for a while.
So you think this was some sort of freaky pedo group? I mean that would hold someone to hide a body. Especially if it meant the other children weren’t ‘investigated’.
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